An unofficial news blog for Neil Young fans from Thrasher's Wheat with concert and album updates, reviews, analysis, and other Rock & Roll ramblings. Separating the wheat from the chaff since 1996.

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Wednesday, April 04, 2018

Neil Young's Unreleased Songs - The Unofficial Archive

Today, we unveil an exclusive compilation specifically for Neil Young fans as a reference to his unreleased songs.

Long time rustie Robert Broadfoot -- who hails from Germany -- has produced the most comprehensive listing of Neil Young’s unreleased material in a PDF document which Thrasher's Wheat is honored to serve as host (link below).The Unofficial Archive - Neil Young's Unreleased Songs by Robert Broadfoot
Version 3a – 2 April 2018

FOREWORD

Dear Thrasher’s Wheat Community,

This document attempts to provide as complete a catalogue as possible of songs written or performed by Neil Young which do not appear on his officially released material and media. “Official” in this case means released through an authorized record company. The catalogue will therefore include much material which has already been released on unofficial bootleg media or other non-commercial recordings.

For the sake of completeness and to avoid confusion, the catalogue also includes the alternative names of songs which have been published officially but under another name. These are marked in square brackets.

It may also contain one or two titles which have exclusively been released on the official Neil Young Archive website, or on non-standard audio media such as Blu-Ray, VHS etc.

As far as I know, this is the most comprehensive published listing of Neil Young’s unreleased material, though the publication of further official Neil Young Archive material can at any time change its accuracy. Many entries here will presumably become part of his “officially released material”, and I will try to update what will hopefully become an ever shorter document as time goes on.

I am making this information available in the public domain for Neil’s fans. I have always intended it to be a “community project”, a kind of Neilopedia, and I invite everyone to join in with feedback, input, corrections, suggestions and of course new content.

If for any reason you make use of it in publications of any kind, please give me a credit, just as I have tried to give credit to those sources I have drawn upon. Please let me know if you know of any other sources which I can include or cooperate with in future.

Neil Young obviously has the right as an artist not to release or wish to release material he does not consider it appropriate or ready to publish. I apologise to him if my love and admiration of his work helps to make known or propagate material which he does not want to release or make known in this way.

He is however a true artist, one whose work will live on for posterity, and it is in my opinion fair to find out what makes an artist tick. I hope Neil agrees. I am certainly not trying to make any money out of this project, just help others to understand the artist better.

I am sure you will find it illuminating even if, for this version, I have decided for copyright reasons to remove the hundreds of YouTube links to existing postings of many of the titles. If they have not already been removed by the copyright owners, you should be able to find them yourselves. Good hunting!

Robert Broadfoot
2 April 2018
robert@zumschoenenconsul.deMany thanks Robert on this labor of love, which we can certainly relate to. This "Neilopedia" makes a mighty fine contribution to the global rustie/Neil fan community.

For any suggestions, corrections, updates, etc., please contact Robert at robert@zumschoenenconsul.de

Thrasher's Wheat will continue to host updates as long as possible and/or necessary.

21 Comments:

In a followup on the rationale for why the need for an Unofficial Archive of Neil Young's Unreleased Songs, Robert responded:

"I hope TW followers find it interesting and not too academic!

But I see it as a kind of challenge to Neil to start releasing more in a genuine archive than copies of the songs he has already released. It is his decision of course but I would like to know how much I have already spent to buy the same version of the same songs on different media! Not unhappy, it's my choice, but I am just hoping there is more on offer when the Archive goes subscription.

Even if the sound quality does not justify release, he could perhaps at least publish details and lyrics and sound clips. It's time to get an overview of the total song catalogue, like the Köchel catalogue for Mozart. And it's important to do that while he can still influence it. So let's hope.

Absolutely incredible. I don’t care if changes or updates are made today or in the future. Robert I encourage you to contact Genesis Publications so that a leather-bound version can rest on the bookshelves of NY fans worldwide. Again, your work is absolutely incredible. Regards, John Kwit, North American Reporter, 4WaySite.com

Unbelievable research and compilation! Thank you. One thing that has always bothered me. I was at the 9-19-78 show at Pine Knob in Clarkson, MI, and I have no recollection of Bright Sunny Days/Price You Pay. I attended the previous show at 9-18-78 too, and remember the set list as exactly the same on the 19th. (I was straight for both shows.) I'm not sure how I could miss this. Were any Rusties at the 9-19 show, and remember NY playing this song?

Well I should consider myself lucky/a true rustie since I heard him play a song the only time he played it! More recently I was at the show in WDC where Neil first played "Try." Ditto with the some of the songs on "Peace Trail," though he played them a bunch more afterwards.

Wow, thanks for all the compliments. I must show them to my partner to prove to her that all those evenings not spent paying enough attention to her were somehow worthwhile. I will also add them at the end of the next edition so you will be immortalised!I wish I could have posted the version with all the hundreds of YouTube links so that you could also hear a lot of the songs, but I was scared Neil might get angry!I am not sure about the full book publishing angle unless all the sources I trawled agree to that. The list would never have been started without them and a lot of the information comes from them! Let's see. A leather bound edition would be a great idea, but it would have to be in brown suede leather with long fringes. Please keep all the corrections coming!!! I am sure there are hundreds of mistakes! Help me!Best regards to you all.Keep on rocking in the free world, and in the non-free world too for that matter. Robert

Message to andrea1bianco:Is there any evidence for the connection of We're Having Some Fun to Ways Of Love? The lyric in WOL is rather different (We've been havin' too much fun) and that is unusual for an alternative title.

To me they seem quite similar, though not identical considering the frequent mispellings of these unofficial/official listings from session tapes. The circulating Reprise and the Atlantic lists are also full of errors. Change of lyrics for unfinished songs is also a common event.So we should always consider them cum grano salis.So Tired

As a footnote curiosity, the unreleased songs published on CSNY 1974, A Treasure and Bluenote Cafe aren't listed as such in the NYA website. Maybe other studio/live versions will be released as "original versions" in the planned archival projects.So Tired

In "Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life and Legacy of the Byrds' Gene Clark," Einarson attributes the quote to a 1984 unpublished interview with Canadian radio broadcaster Holger Petersen: "Part of that Byrds reunion album is actually me and David Crosby and Neil Young and different assortments of people on it."